大脑经常短路?你需要进行记忆大扫除

　If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

　　如果你总是想不起别人的名字，总忘记数字，或者常常跟不上电影剧情，那就来看看科学家的建议吧。

　　Scientists say memory lapses can be blamed on too much irrelevant information

　　大脑经常短路？你需要进行记忆大扫除

　　If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

　　如果你总是想不起别人的名字，总忘记数字，或者常常跟不上电影剧情，那就来看看科学家的建议吧。

　　Scientists say the problem is that you know too much – and you need to declutter, or spring-cleanyour mind.

　　科学家表示，出现这一情况是因为“你知道的太多了”，需要清理一下思维，或者来个“大扫除”。

　　Experiments show that the memory lapsesthat come with age are not simply due to brain slowing down.

　　试验显示，随着年龄增长而出现的记忆衰退并不仅仅是因为大脑思维减慢。

　　Instead, they can be blamed on the well-used brain finding it more and more difficult to stop irrelevant information interfering with the task in hand.

　　相反，这可能是因为运转良好的大脑发现防止无用信息干扰手头工作越来越困难了。

　　The first step in the study was to compare the working memory of the young and old. Working memory involves holding information in mind while manipulating it mentally.

　　研究首先对比了年轻人和老年人的工作记忆，包括在思考时将信息牢记于心。

　　In the context of the study, it involved giving the volunteers groups of sentences and asking them to work out whether each line made sense – and to remember the last word of each sentence.

　　研究人员在实验中给了受试者一组句子，要求他们指出每行句子是否有意义，并记住每句的最后一个单词。

　　Overall, the younger people, who had an average age of 23, did better, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology reports.

　　《实验心理学季刊》报告称，总体来看，平均年龄为23岁的年轻人表现更好。

　　The Canadian researchers then did a second experiment to see what was hindering the older volunteers, who had an average age of 67.

　　加拿大的研究人员随后进行了另一项实验，以找出妨碍老年受试者记忆的因素。老年受试者平均年龄为67岁。

　　This involved being shown a picture of eight animals and being asked to memorise the order in which the creatures appeared.

　　其中一项实验是给受试者一张画有八只动物的图片，让他们记住动物的顺序。

　　The volunteers were then shown dozens of the pictures and asked to click on their computer mouse when the first animal in their memorised sequence occurred, then the second and so on.

　　受试者随后会看到几十张图片，并按记忆中动物的顺序点击鼠标。

　　The older adults found it more difficult to progress, suggesting the previous picture was stuck in their mind.

　　老年受试者更难完成实任务，这表明之前的图片给他们留下的印象太深刻了。

　　Mervin Blair, of Montreal’s Concordia University, said: ‘We found that the older adults had more difficulty in getting rid of previous information.’

　　加拿大蒙特利尔的康科迪亚大学的默文 布莱尔说：“我们发现老年人更难摆脱掉原有信息的影响。”

　　Previous research has found that the part of the brain that keeps embarrassing thoughts in checkalso weakens with age, leading to people losing some of their inhibitions.

　　之前的研究发现，可阻挡尴尬想法的大脑部分也会随着年龄的增长而退化，导致人们有时无法自控。

　　In other words, outspokenold people aren't being rude - they just can't hold their tongues.

　　换句话说，讲话直白的老年人并不是无礼，他们只是管不住自己的嘴。